How do I remove a Steam game from my library?

Question

I like how Steam presents my library to me. However, there is one thing that keeps irritating me every time I open Steam: the Team Fortress 2 Beta. I don't want it, yet it is always in my games list.

I've tried contacting Steam Support since it seems I was unable to remove the games myself so far. This was their response; their only solution was to hide the games within my library:

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.

Games cannot be removed from a Steam account.

You are free to uninstall the game (right-click on the game name and select "Delete local content") and change your game list to show only installed games.

This can be done by clicking "Show" in the upper left-hand corner. From here, select the "Installed" option.

Another option would be to create a new category for only this title and then minimize the category. To create a new Category, please right click the game and choose "Set Category".

Then click on the category name in your Library to collapse the category.

If you have any further questions, please let us know.

Thus, is there a way to remove games from my Steam library permanently? To clarify, I don't mean just by uninstalling, I mean by removing it from my library forever.

Does this help? http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/24439/how-can-i-delete-local-content-from-a-game-not-in-my-list-in-steam/24441#24441 — juan, Sep 13 '11 at 21:47
@JuanManuel Nope, just tested it myself, it only uninstalls the game, not removing it from the library. — mordi2k, Sep 13 '11 at 22:06
for tf2 beta in particular, can you opt out of beta participation? — oracle certified professional, Sep 14 '11 at 08:05
There used to be an option in the Steam settings to opt out of betas, but I can't find it any more. — Joe Dovahkiin, Sep 14 '11 at 11:22
Opting out of Betas and where it says file menu I think it means Steam menu — oracle certified professional, Sep 15 '11 at 17:59
@oracle certified professional — That setting appears to only affect betas of the Steam client itself. :-/ — Ben Blank, Sep 17 '11 at 00:12
Just buy lots more games. The list will be so long you won't notice the TF2 Beta anymore. — Jarett Millard, Dec 22 '11 at 04:08
What i do for games that i no longer play, is i add all the current games i actually use into my favourites, and anything that I dont want is below it in another category that can be hidden, therefore not in a massive list in steam. — Axxelsian, Aug 04 '12 at 18:29
Steam should really have a system set up for refunds. Google Play and Origin do, so Steam should really have one too. — shieldgenerator7, Jul 08 '14 at 04:19

score 97 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:09

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Permanent Solutions

Permanently removing game(s) from library

Valve has recently added the ability to remove games manually, without the intervention of the support team. See @skully's answer below for more details.

Contacting Steam Support

I've just been through this. Steam Support is really good at sending canned responses and not great at actually doing anything. The winning argument for me was to quote the Steam subscriber agreement (my emphasis):

10 TERM AND TERMINATION

...

B. Termination by You.

You may cancel your Account at any time. You may cease use of a Subscription at any time or, if you choose, you may request that we terminate your access to a Subscription. However, Subscriptions are not transferable, and even if your access to a Subscription for a particular game or application is terminated, the original activation key will not be able to be registered to any other account, even if the game or application was purchased in a retail store....

I was able to convince them to remove games I no longer wanted with a couple of exceptions where the game was part of a bundle and I wanted to keep other games from the same bundle.

FWIW The first canned response I got was identical to the OP's. If you contact Steam Support you can still have them remove the games from your library as opposed to the other solutions here.

@lunboks pointed to a handy link in the comments below which explains how to use the steam console to find out where a particular game came from (what subscription/bundle/etc).

Workarounds

Hiding the game in your library

A previous Steam Update includes the following feature:

Add "Hide this game in my library" functionality, accessible from the Set Categories menu. Games that are hidden will not show up in library filters except for a new filter called "Hidden", which will only appear once at least one game is marked as hidden. Hidden games are still available for play and will still appear on the user's profile.

The game is hidden from tile view, search results, etc.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:09

Community

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answered Aug 02 '12 at 20:37

Basic

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So through this method, were you able to remove the game(s) you wanted from your account? – Kotsu Aug 02 '12 at 20:54
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Yes, but it did take a lot of arguing. It's also worth noting the restriction re: bundles (I wanted to get rid of one game from a bundle I'd bought but couldn't without losing them all). It did get rid of things like Betas/Tests and standalone games I didn't like – Basic Aug 02 '12 at 20:55
Would you mind posting your (semi)complete email conversation? Maybe we could set up a standarized email that covers all grounds and gets things done. – Lg102 Aug 04 '12 at 19:01
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I can confirm getting rid of the purely german version of Bioshock after contacting support. I didn't get any refund or such though, so I had to spent another 5 Euros on the international edition (which was on summer sale). – Zommuter Aug 04 '12 at 19:42
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@Lg102 I've added the full transcript but it's a little long so if you'd like to grab what you're interested in, I'll cut it back out at some point to reduce clutter – Basic Sep 09 '12 at 11:54
Cool, so it IS possible. Good to know. – Lukas Stejskal May 20 '13 at 11:26
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That's exactly what I wanted to hear. By the way, if you ever need to do this again, you can use the licenses_for_app console command to figure out which subscription is granting you a game so Support won't accidentally nuke a bundle. – a cat Jul 07 '14 at 19:39
@lunboks Handy link, thanks, I'll include it. in the answer – Basic Jul 09 '14 at 00:39
really hate those copy-pasta responses from the support, just because they are so lazy ._. – Gigala Jul 14 '14 at 06:11
Can you provide the email please? I can't find anything in their **** ̶w̶e̶b̶s̶i̶t̶e maze! Thanks >:( – leaf Jun 15 '15 at 17:34
@wawawared Open a support ticket https://support.steampowered.com/ (Do a search and you should see a "Problem with Steam? Contact Steam Support" button on the right hand side) – Basic Jun 15 '15 at 18:33
Well, you can do this already for your own without support. On 04.12.2015 steam officialy provide this functionality. For more check another answer on this page http://gaming.stackexchange.com/a/246442/131873 – alexche8 Dec 04 '15 at 21:12
@alexche8 Thanks for the info, I'll include it in the answer – Basic Dec 05 '15 at 01:17

score 57 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 16 '22 at 12:32

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Since late 2015, Steam allows you to PERMANENTLY remove games from your account!

Steps

Log into Steam Support
Select Games, Software, etc.,
Select the game from the search function that shows up
Select the option: I want to permanently remove this game from my account.
Select the option: Ok, remove the listed games from my account permanently.
Repeat as many times as you have games you'd like to get rid of.

You can browse over your entire library and choose which software you'd like to permanently get rid of. But note, once you have removed a game from your library, it's gone permanently, so if later down the road you'd like it back you'll have to purchase it again.

You'll also need to watch out for some other issues. The thread linked above has noted that if the game is part of a bundle (HumbleBundle, etc.), removing one game from a "package" may require you to remove all the games from that specific bundle.

edited Nov 16 '22 at 12:32

Joachim

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answered Dec 04 '15 at 04:59

childe

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Do you know if this will remove the game from your "Total time played" list as well? – Tipster Dec 11 '15 at 17:54
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@Tipster Sorry for the late reply, no it will not :( – childe Jan 23 '16 at 23:22
Thanks for this! really helped me clear out old beta and free-to-play stuff on my account. One thing I noticed is that when you are trying to remove a game from the package, it will try to remove ALL games from that package. Quite annoying. Do you know the way around it? – Roman Mar 15 '19 at 17:57
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"Permanently" is, at least at the time of writing this, not really permanent. You can restore the "permanently" deleted games by going into the support menu again and clicking "It's not in my library". There you have the option of restoring the game to your account. This only works when removed through this method. When the Steam Support removes a game, I think it's gone for good. – AyCe Jul 03 '20 at 19:17

score 40 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 15 '20 at 08:59

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Changing the visibility

As Mr Smooth mentioned, you can use the drop down menu in the library, to only display installed games.

Adding categories

You can also add categories, and add the game(s) to the category, this can be done by right clicking a game, and selecting the "Set category..." button. From there you can add categories.

Contacting Steam support

You can also try to contact Steam support, about removing a game from your library. They should be able to do it. Please note that this may take a bit of arguing, and will require more than one e-mail exchange.

edited Jun 15 '20 at 08:59

Community

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answered Sep 13 '11 at 20:35

mordi2k

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I have just contacted Steam support. I will add information about any replies. – Lg102 Sep 14 '11 at 20:48
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I take it Steam support won't help then? – Ben Brocka Jun 23 '12 at 01:59
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At least in my case Steam support did remove on demand. – Zommuter Aug 04 '12 at 19:43
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This is perfect, +1. I don't care to permanently remove games from my list; adding them to a "Hidden" category is all that's needed. – RomanSt Sep 24 '12 at 10:34

score 9 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 13 '11 at 20:25

9

You can use the drop down menu to only display the games you have installed, which will remove the Team Fortress 2 Beta from view. Then you can just enable "All Games" whenever you want to install a new game.

answered Sep 13 '11 at 20:25

Mr Smooth

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score 6 · Answer 5 · edited Nov 17 '22 at 05:52

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Aside from what has been mentioned in other answers, games that have "complimentary" licenses (free-to-play games and demos) can be permanently removed from your library by going to https://store.steampowered.com/account/licenses/ and clicking "Remove" next to the game's name.

edited Nov 17 '22 at 05:52

galacticninja

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answered Aug 21 '14 at 04:47

BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft

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score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 14 '11 at 02:03

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Another option is, if you are on windows 7 you can right click the steam task bar icon and it will give you a menu of options + games pinned and games recently played. Hopefully it won't show up on the recently played, but if it does you can load up other titles and eventually it will be pushed out of the recently played list IIRC. Or just only use the pinned games list :)

answered Sep 14 '11 at 02:03

Jared

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This just hides the game history, not the game and therefore is not an answer. – ave Dec 04 '15 at 15:47

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 20 '21 at 21:47

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Silly reminder, but if you just bought a "wrong game", you may also ask for a refund directly via Steam's support.

IIRC, the conditions are :

Game wasn't launched for more than 2 hours
Purchase is less than 14 days old

answered Jul 20 '21 at 21:47

Balmipour

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score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Nov 16 '22 at 12:22

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For completion's sake, another option for permanently removing free games from your account is to right-click them in your Library list, selecting Manage, and selecting Remove from account:

answered Nov 16 '22 at 12:22

Joachim

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zCynic · Answer 9 · 2012-08-05T06:33:27.027

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You can uninstall F2p ( Free To Play ) games, to get rid of them. To do so right click on them and select " Delete Local Content..." As for purchased games, you can press on " All Games " that will give you a drop-down menu, then select what you desire, recently played games, installed, all, or even favorites. You can favorite games by right click, and then select " Add to Favorites ".

edited Aug 05 '12 at 06:33

answered Aug 05 '12 at 06:20

zCynic

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@mordi2k stated that this is wrong in a comment. Also TF2Beta is not a F2P game. "@JuanManuel Nope, just tested it myself, it only uninstalls the game, not removing it from the library." – ave Dec 04 '15 at 15:56